Key fact: Last time I looked Substack didn't have an API for posting a message. They seem to want you to use their editor, or at least copy/paste the text from another source. I am not here at midnight to copy the text of Scripting News and paste it into a dialog. So I wrote my own newsletter software, not a great use of my time then and I have to keep it running, etc. #
But now I need a special mail list, there's so much software coming out of the Scripting pipe, we're going to try something new. #
Here's the idea -- I bet Claude Code can do it for me. It already reads my RSS 2.0 feed, and if somehow I mark a post as needing to go out immediately (tbd how) their agent could post it to Substack on my behalf, automatically. #
So this is a test. I already have a Substack list. 52 souls are signed up, in vain until today -- I never planned to actually use it, but here we are. This could be the first actual post to that list. #
Update: It worked. Love it. Still a bit more work to do. #
Last update: Friday November 13, 2026; 1:15 PM EST.
You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)